Hour-long checking drive leads to massive snarl at Sirhaul Toll Plaza

Traffic came to a standstill between 8.45am and 9.45am as commuters tried to get to office after relaxations were announced in the fourth phase of the lockdown that started Monday.

Thousands of commuters travelling between Gurugram and Delhi were stuck in a jam near Sirhaul toll plaza on the expressway on Wednesday morning after Gurugram police put up barricades to stop and check every vehicle for movement passes.

The situation normalised only around 10 am when Gurugram police stopped checking every vehicle and instead resorted to random checking.(Yogendra Kumar/HT Photo)

Traffic came to a standstill between 8.45am and 9.45am as commuters tried to get to office after relaxations were announced in the fourth phase of the lockdown that started Monday. The traffic backlog stretched till Shankar Chowk flyover, about a kilometre away, commuters said.

The situation normalised only around 10 am when Gurugram police stopped checking every vehicle and instead resorted to random checking.

Gurugram police officials said around 8:30 am, during random checking, they found a lot of commuters attempting to cross the border without valid passes.

They then decided to check all vehicles crossing into Delhi that led to a jam.

Police commissioner Muhammad Akil said that only health workers and others who have valid passes issued by the district administration through the SARAL portal will be allowed to cross the border.

“Our deployment at all borders remains the same and there is no change. Although most of the vehicles crossing the border on Wednesday had valid permissions, there were a few which were trying to sneak through. As a precautionary measure, our teams started checking passes of all vehicles during the early morning hours when the maximum number of people head to Delhi. This resulted in minor congestion and we subsequently switched back to random checking,” said Akil.

Manmeet Kumar, a resident of Palm Drive on Golf Course Extension Road, said that she had to wait at the border for nearly half an hour on Wednesday morning .

“All the lanes leading to Delhi had been barricaded and Gurugram police were allowing entry of vehicles one at a time, which resulted in heavy congestion on the expressway. I was stuck at the border for more than 30 minutes and was finally able to pass by 9.15am,” said Kumar.

Vardhaan Agarwal, a resident of DLF 5, said that the backlog of vehicles had started stretching till the Shankar Chowk flyover and he was only able to make his way into Delhi when Gurugram police removed all the barricades and started allowing vehicles to pass through.

“In 45 minutes, I must have travelled only around 500 metres. I thought I would be stuck for nearly two hours at the border. But, around 9.30 am, Gurugram police suddenly removed all barricades and started allowing most vehicles to pass through and stopped only a handful. I was able to cross over in the next fifteen minutes,” said Agarwal.

After 11 am, the movement of vehicles largely remained unaffected, several commuters stating that they even made their way into Delhi and back, without any checking on both sides.

“I had applied for passes on the Saral portal, three days ago but did not get any reply. I had an emergency meeting at my office in Dwarka in Delhi and decided to take a chance. Luckily, while entering Delhi and on my way back into Gurugram no one stopped me to check for a pass,” said Sandeep Kumar, resident of Block E, DLF Phase 1.